“Werewolves of London,” from Warren Zevon’s 1978 Excitable Boy album, was written by Zevon with longtime friends Waddy Wachtel and Roy Marinell. Jackson Browne, who produced the song, told Rolling Stone that “Werewolves of London” is a “Victorian nightmare.”
“It’s about a really well-dressed ladies’ man, a werewolf preying on little old ladies. In a way, it’s the Victorian nightmare, the gigolo thing. The idea behind all of those references is the idea of the ne’er-do-well who devotes his life to pleasure: the debauched Victorian gentleman in gambling clubs, consorting with prostitutes; the aristocrat who squanders the family fortune. All of that is secreted away in that one line: ‘I’d like to meet his tailor.’”
“Sickness, doctors, that scares me,” Zevon said in Rolling Stone. “Not violence — helplessness. That’s why I turn to violent stories.”
Zevon met guitarist Waddy Wachtel in 1972 when Zevon was musical director for the Everly Brothers and Wachtel auditioned for the band. Zevon explained in Goldmine that “Werewolves Of London” was teen idol Phil Everly’s idea.
“I was living with him. Because I was in one sort of trouble or another… And he said, ‘I’m working on this solo album. Why don’t you guys write a song for me? Write a dance song. Like… ‘Werewolves Of London.’ That’s exactly what he said. I just said, ‘O-kaayy…’
Zevon recalled that wrote “Werewolves of London” with Wachtel and Marinell in 20 minutes.
“I remember certain lines and whose they are. I think most of the first verse was entirely Waddy. I thought it was pretty remarkable that he spontaneously delivered himself of this sort of Paul Simon-esque verse. No sooner had we told him we were “doing the Werewolves of London” than he said, ‘I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain.’”
Wachtel told Mental Floss that while the writing came easily, finding the right musicians was problematic.
“We got a decent track, but there was something lacking in it. It didn’t sound stupid enough; it sounded cute. Jackson was saying, ‘It’s really good!’ and Warren and I were saying, ‘No, man, it’s too cute. It’s got to be… heavy.’ So we proceeded to try five or six bands after that.”
"Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon
Zevon and Wachtel finally settled on Mick Fleetwood and John McVie of Fleetwood Mac to record the track.
“We kept going until six in the morning!” said Wachtel. “I remember at about five in the morning saying to Mick, ‘I think we’re done!’ and Mick looks at me with that crazy look he gets in his eyes and sort of whispers, ‘We’re never done, Waddy!’
So we put in another hour, and at about seven in the morning, we were up to about take 59, and I looked at Jackson and said, ‘Hey Jackson, take two was pretty good, wasn’t it?’ He said, ‘Yeah, let’s hear take two.’ We listened to take two, and I said, ‘Gentlemen, thank you very much!’”
“Werewolves of London” was the only Zevon single to crack the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, but Wachtel says Zevon thought its release by Asylum Records as a single was a big mistake.
“Warren and I were completely insulted! ‘What’s wrong with these people?!’ And sure enough, it became the biggest hit Warren ever had.”
Mastropolo is the author of Fillmore East: The Venue That Changed Rock Music Forever and New York Groove: An Inside Look at the Stars, Shows, and Songs That Make NYC Rock, selected by Best Classic Bands as two of the Best Music Books of 2021 and 2022.
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